To be fair, there are quite a few of the former, 23 singles-chart entries (22 of them here), in fact, and some of the latter are could-have-beens. Even when abbreviating each of their first nine studio albums to four-to-six cuts (and throwing in a few stray tunes from the live album, the hits album, and a Christmas compilation), the songs break down into the hits and the also-rans. Of course, the consequence of Petty & the Heartbreakers' affection for the music of the mid-'60s was that, in essence, they were a singles band, a fact driven home on the first three CDs or cassettes of this six-CD or cassette box set.
Petty's only musical development occurred upon his encountering former Electric Light Orchestra leader Jeff Lynne, who helped write and produce his later records, updating them to the Sgt. No wonder the Heartbreakers spent part of the '80s backing Dylan.
#PLAY TOM PETTY SERIES#
Never getting too mellow to be mistaken for a sensitive singer/songwriter or rocking too hard to be thought of as a heavy metallurgist, Petty spun out a series of mid-tempo hits patterned on Bob Dylan's classic Blonde on Blonde sound, in which the guitars play off the keyboards while the singer sings lyrics steeped in attitude in a high nasal whine. Coming along in 1976, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers were part of a movement back to basic, pop-oriented rock & roll that has proven to be the most lasting legacy of a decade otherwise given over to such stylistic flameouts as disco and punk.
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